


Shatter

by LadyLunas



Series: Glass [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-16
Updated: 2013-04-30
Packaged: 2017-12-08 15:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/762964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLunas/pseuds/LadyLunas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy figured she would graduate and move to New York City for her internship at Stark Industries. She never expected SHIELD to show up out of the blue and practically drag her from her everyday life. She never expected to have to help save the world. And she never dreamed that meant working against Loki.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Recruitment

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by the wonderful Independence1776 through five crazy edits. Thank you so much. I owe you.
> 
> The Avengers re-write, 'Glass' style. Any recognizable dialogue has been taken from the movie.

The doorbell interrupted Grandpa mid-rant. He glared, but took a swig of beer. Darcy flinched and went back to poking at her meatloaf with her fork as her father got up to answer the door. She heard a short, muffled conversation, then Dad walked back in with a slightly shocked look on his face.

“Darcy, it’s someone from the government,” he said, almost a question. “He gave his name as Coulson.”

Darcy dropped her fork and practically leaped for the entry hall. Her socks slipped on the hardwood floor, sending her almost completely off balance. She managed to stop her forward momentum just before sliding into Coulson. Darcy mock-glared at him. She knew his face well enough to tell when he was hiding a smirk behind that calm expression.

“Miss Lewis, is there anywhere private we can talk?”

She glanced over her shoulder at the dining room, where Grandpa had started on about visitors interrupting dinner and Mom not bothering to hide her interest in what was happening in the hall instead of eating. Darcy grimaced.

“The garden might be best,” she said. “Sound kinda carries in this house.”

Coulson nodded, understanding quite implicitly that ‘sound carrying’ meant her mother snooping at doors. She grabbed her shoes and led him through the kitchen (and the mess of dishes that was her current chore. So what if she couldn’t cook that well? A few burned pasta casseroles shouldn’t have meant her forever delegated to cleanup while she lived at home.) and out the back door into her mother’s pride and joy of a garden.

The early summer Virginia heat swamped them, even though it was six-thirty in the evening and early May. The spring had been a hot one so far. Darcy scowled at the mugginess and led Coulson down a path through blooming foliage to a small bench next to a cherub-bearing fountain. The giant oak tree behind it shaded them from the sun. Coulson sat down beside her. Darcy looked at him askance; he almost looked sad.

“One of our research labs was destroyed last night,” he said softly. “I’m sorry, Miss Lewis. SHIELD has no choice given the circumstances but to take you into protective custody.”

Darcy raised her eyebrows. Seriously? She’d done nothing for the past two years since leaving New Mexico but study. Occasionally talk with Thor. Talk with Jane at least once a week. And make damn sure she wasn’t breaking the nondisclosure agreements she’d signed with regards to SHIELD and, oddly enough, with Asgard. At least she’d had her last exam that morning.

“Coulson, my graduation-,” Darcy said.

He frowned as he interrupted. “I know. Miss Lewis, a threat has come to our attention that has a definitive connection to you-”

”What about my family?” she interrupted with no qualms. If SHIELD had to take her, fine. But her family had better not be touched. She had her taser, dammit. She’d use it if she had to.

“We’re sending routine patrols out,” Coulson said. He sighed. “Pack an overnight bag. And bring whatever items you possess relating to Asgard.”

Darcy’s eyes widened. She glanced at the house, noting the presence of her mother in the kitchen and the open window above the sink. Then up to her bedroom. Anything relating to Asgard? What happened that warranted information on Asgard? She clenched her hands. Had bilgesnipe invaded? She sure hoped not. Thor’s stories about them were crazy.

She took a half-hour to pack everything. Bras, underwear, iPod. Honestly, the important stuff. Her toothbrush. She had no idea what Coulson was telling her family about why she had to leave. It didn’t much matter; she was going regardless of any protests. Darcy glanced at the portrait hanging on her wall and paused. She dug out her phone and took a picture of it. That should satisfy Coulson. It wasn’t going to leave her bedroom. She paused, then held out her right hand and took a picture of the ring. _That_ wasn’t leaving her hand. Everything else Loki had ever given her went into a box. She swung the duffel bag over her shoulder, picked up the box, and went downstairs.

Her mom cried as Darcy shut the front door. An agent grabbed the box from her hands before she could open her mouth to protest. Coulson nodded after the man. Darcy sighed and followed him to the black SUV parked in the street. God, her neighbors would be gossiping about this for weeks. Taken away by the Men In Black. She shoved her duffel bag next to the box and climbed into the rear seat. Coulson settled beside her. The other agent started the vehicle and drove away.

Darcy stared out the window as they drove onto General Ross’ army base outside of town. Trees, cars, buildings, helicopter. Oh boy. She looked at Coulson as they left the car. “Where are we going?”

”New York City,” he said as they settled into the copter. Darcy shoved her bag under the seat and pulled on the headphones he handed her. She clicked to the passenger channel Coulson indicated. The door slammed shut. Darcy clenched her armrests as the chopper lifted off the ground and turned northward. A lot louder than an airplane and quite a bit scarier.

Coulson tapped her shoulder. She turned to him and raised an eyebrow. He pulled a tablet out from the bag at his feet. He paused before handing it to her, then secured the bag again.

“I’m sorry,” he said softy over the radio. “This isn’t going to be easy to watch. But it’s why we had to bring you in. You need to know.”

She took the tablet (of course it was Stark Industries) and tapped the icon on the screen Coulson pointed to. A video began to play, somehow connected to her headphones.

It looked like a gigantic warehouse filled with monitoring devices and what looked like a lit pathway leading towards a wall. Two banners filled the wall, depicting both the NASA and SHIELD logos. Director Fury walked into the room, accompanied by Erik Selvig. Darcy’s stomach swooped and she paused the video.

“Wait,” she said. “Do I even have the clearance to see this?”

“As of now you do.” Coulson sounded grim. She eyed him. That wasn’t normal. She unpaused the recording.

The video was silent, but there was a transcription from some hidden microphones running next to the display. Darcy raised an eyebrow as the machine Erik and the director were examining sent a stream of blue to the opposite end of the room and opened a portal. It resembled a blue Bifrost. She almost dropped the tablet when the kneeling man stood. The editing of the different security feeds coupled with motion of the helicopter sent her stomach swooping. Even more so, the camera focusing on the man’s face and his crazed grin. On Loki’s crazed grin. Darcy swallowed and watched as Loki proceeded to kill several SHIELD agents, use his spear-thing to mind-control several others, and walk out of the room with his agents and the blue box from the machine.

“How did you get the footage?” Darcy asked. “You said the base is gone.”

“All security feeds are backed up on a remote server,” Coulson said. “Do you understand now why we’re bringing you in?”

She nodded. Kinda obvious. “But what about my internship? And more importantly, what was that blue thing?”

”We call it the Tesseract,” Coulson said. “We’ve been investigating it as a clean energy source.”

Darcy just looked at him. Really? Were Stark’s arc reactors not good enough? “Where are we going?” she asked, not willing to get into a pissing contest she wasn’t going to win.

Coulson smiled. “We’re heading to New York to talk with Stark.” His expression turned serious. “You are not leaving my sight until we have reached the helicarrier.”

Oh. He was her keeper. Lovely. Darcy rewound the feed and paused it on a close-up of Loki grinning at Fury. She ran a finger down one virtual cheek and looked up at Coulson.

“Loki’s alive,” she said.

“And as of now, you are SHIELD’s foremost expert on him,” Phil said. “We have been unable to raise Asgard.” He frowned. “We’re moving Doctor Foster as we speak, just to be safe.”

Darcy grimaced and looked back down at the tablet at Loki and his glittering blue eyes. “So what’s the helicarrier?”

”Our mobile base,” Phil said. “It’s probably the safest place in the world right now.” He held out a hand for the tablet. She didn’t give it back.

”Then there’s one thing you need to know, right now,” Darcy said, her voice quite firm. (Yay! She wasn’t giving into her panic yet. Oh, she was so going to need her iPod after this. Whenever they got to the helicarrier, whatever and wherever that was.) Coulson raised an eyebrow. She tapped the screen and took a deep breath. “I don’t think - Loki mentioned something about being given new purpose. I think whoever did that did something to him.”

“Why?”

Darcy wanted to cry and she was _not_ going to. “Loki’s eyes are green.”

 

The journey to New York stayed quiet after that. Coulson worked silently beside Darcy. She’d glanced over once, bored with the scenery flying by underneath, but he looked like he was in the middle of reading some report on the tablet she’d given back. His brow was furrowed and Darcy sighed and turned back to the buzz of rotors and the window.

She usually liked traveling. She and Charday and Antonio were planning on a car trip after graduation. She had two weeks before starting her internship. They were going up to New York after a long meandering drive up the coast. She had a room in Antonio’s apartment (that her mom had thrown a fit over, her precious daughter living with three boys, gay or not) and a job and a future. It was all Loki’s fault. She couldn’t ever hate him, but it certainly seemed like it for the moment. He’d come back to Earth after disappearing for two years, took out a SHIELD base, and without knowing it, completely fucked up her life.

Fucked up lives. What the hell had happened to him? Loki’s eyes weren’t blue and she shuddered to think of what his ‘new purpose’ was. Darcy shivered and ran her hands up and down her arms. Nothing could successfully distract her now. She glanced at Coulson; he was still reading whatever was on the StarkPad. He had a crisis on his hands. She was just the woman he had to baby-sit. Even if he didn’t seem to mind the responsibility. They’d gotten along fine in New Mexico, she thought. He’d given her an awesome job recommendation. Darcy sighed and resisted the urge to bug him. He had more important things to do than alleviate her boredom.

Darcy thought they were all a bit relieved when they arrived in New York. The sun was just setting and touched the skyscrapers with fire. Coulson ushered her out. Her luggage remained in the helicopter. A black SUV was waiting for them. Coulson slid into the back seat and Darcy sighed and settled beside him.

The traffic was hell. The sun set by the time the SUV arrived at Stark Tower. Darcy gave a low whistle at the sight of it all lit up against the night sky. The arc reactor was working. Holy crap, if she could actually get her internship started in two weeks like she was supposed to, she’d be doing nothing but answering e-mails for weeks. The agent driving shut the SUV down, but remained inside as Coulson and Darcy slid out. Coulson straightened his suit before pulling out his phone. He made a single call. Darcy tagged along after him when he hung up and started walking, carrying a briefcase in one hand. To her surprise, he started talking to the thin air when they went into the elevator. It responded. Coulson introduced her to the voice, calling it JARVIS, and she said hello almost shyly. It wasn’t every day she met an AI controlling a skyscraper. Then Coulson got back on the phone.

When they arrived at the penthouse suite, Stark and Potts were playfully bickering about percentages. Then Stark made a motion with his hands after Potts handed him the screen she’d taken from Coulson. Images flickered to life in holographic displays across the room. Darcy’s jaw dropped. That tech was freaking awesome. She wanted it.

Stark and Potts talked softly for a moment before his attention was caught something on one of the screens. He touched Potts’ shoulder; she stopped talking. Stark rotated the display with his hand. “Hey,” he said. “This is you.”

Darcy blinked. It was a weird angle from Puente Antiguo, from a very shaky camera. Almost like it was on someone. She glanced at Coulson. Button camera? But she nodded, watching as she watched Luke turn into Loki and proceed to rescue Jane.

“And who is that?” Stark pointed at Loki.

“Everything is in the briefing packet, Mister Stark,” Coulson said.

Stark waved his hand. “I wasn’t asking you.”

Darcy flushed. “Loki. My boyfriend.”

“Huh.” Stark blinked as he and Potts exchanged a few more soft words and a slow kiss. Coulson looked away. Darcy stared at the ground and blinked away tears. She and Loki had been that comfortable with each other once. She couldn’t begrudge either Stark or Potts, but she missed it and watching hurt.

Potts and Coulson chatted amicably in the elevator ride back down. She introduced herself to Darcy. Darcy made an effort, but seeing everything laid out like that on screens across a room just turned everything that much more real. It wasn’t just Loki and some cosmic cube involved. This was so much bigger than that. She smiled at something Potts said and forced herself to pay attention to the conversation and not make a fool out of herself.

Darcy blinked and stared out the SUV window as Potts made her way into the airport after thanking Coulson for the ride. She’d just met and talked with Potts. Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. And she was completely bad ass and awesome and nice. Darcy hoped she made a decent impression with her. Darcy, she told herself. Stop. You can worry about your job later. Loki’s more important right now. The SUV left the curb and drove away.

It took maybe half an hour to arrive back at the helicopter. Darcy hesitated before getting out of the SUV. That was the director of SHIELD standing there with a cross expression. Oh god, he was going to eat her alive. So she lifted her chin and marched over regardless of the butterflies in her stomach.

“Director Fury,” Coulson said. “Darcy Lewis.”

Fury looked at her. Okay, he was terrifying. That eye patch and his no-nonsense stare made Darcy feel like she was five years old again and had just dropped the cookie jar on the kitchen floor during an effort to sneak one last cookie in before bed.

He also totally needed a theme song, something with drums and overheated strings and the brass section blaring. Like the Imperial March, only ten times more badass. And it needed to play any time he walked into a room. Or stared someone down. Or, you know, just plain existed.

“Thank you for coming, Miss Lewis.” He sounded almost kind.

“You kinda didn’t give me a choice,” Darcy said. She slammed her mouth shut. Where was her filter? Fury just looked at her for a moment. She hunched her shoulders and shuffled her feet.

“Agent Coulson,” Fury said, turning his attention away from her. “I will take Miss Lewis back to the helicarrier tonight. You’ll bring the captain tomorrow.”

”Yes, sir,” Coulson said. He touched Darcy’s shoulder as Fury climbed into the helicopter. “I trust Fury with my life. He is one of three other people I can trust to guard you until I arrive tomorrow.”

Darcy nodded. She took a deep breath and went to the helicopter. She buckled herself in and slid on the headphones Fury dropped in her lap. She stared out the window at the night sky as the helicopter flew away from the coast. And somehow, probably because of how long and stressful her day was, fell asleep.

Fury shook her awake when they landed. Darcy yawned and stretched before leaving the helicopter. A woman with her hair pulled back in a no-nonsense bun greeted him with a smile. She turned to Darcy, introduced herself, and motioned with a hand. A black woman in a tac uniform stepped forward.

“This is Agent Smith,” Hill said. “She will be your personal guard for your stay here.”

Darcy nodded. What could she say? Even of she protested, it wouldn’t change anything. So she fell into step with Agent Smith as they went inside.

“You will be bunking with me,” Smith said as they walked down the passageway. “I know it’s not ideal, but we cannot have you on the helicarrier without proper escort or without protection.”

Great. Darcy yawned. As long as Smith didn’t snore. At this point, that was all Darcy cared about. A shower and a bed. Heck, she might even skip the shower if it meant she could fall asleep faster.

She pointed Darcy to her bed after showing her the bathrooms. Darcy gladly slid into it as the agent settled in the upper bunk with an e-reader. The showers had sucked (there was a reason besides going to her local college that she never lived in dorms. Communal showers gave her the heebie jeebies.) and were cold. Smith hadn’t sounded sympathetic afterward and then brought her to this small, two-person cabin.

Darcy huddled under the blankets and curled into a ball. She wanted her comfortable, broken-in mattress and her mom to make her a cup of hot cocoa. She wanted the teddy bear that stayed on her bed even though she was way too old for stuffed animals and the familiar hum of the air conditioner. Not this tiny cabin on this huge ship. The noises were all off. And out there somewhere was Loki, plotting who knew what, and Darcy really hated being awake this late at night because all she thought about was how everything was going wrong. It wouldn’t. She had to convince herself of that. Everything would be okay. It had to be.


	2. The Helicarrier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'd by Independence1776.

The next thing Darcy heard was a freaking alarm clock. She batted at the thing, then realized it was on a shelf across the room. She groaned and contemplated tossing her pillow at it. Then she sighed and rolled off the bed, careful not to bump her head on the upper bunk. 

Agent Smith took her to the cafeteria for breakfast. The coffee was black and rich and strong. Darcy drained two mugs as she slowly ate her eggs and toast. Everyone ignored her after their first curious looks. Darcy sighed and finished her bacon.

She could not get the layout of this place. Darcy mentally said bad words to the designers of the boat. Logic would be great. (Okay, maybe there was a logic. She just didn’t know it. Yet.) They stopped outside a grey door just like any other and Smith opened it. Darcy stepped inside. Three men looked up at her, dressed in a more formal blue uniform. Darcy glanced at the black jumpsuit Agent Smith wore as she stood by the door. A different department? One of the men stood, walked over, and offered his hand.

“Commander Jaime Vilaro,” he said. “You must be Darcy Lewis.”

Who else would I be, Darcy thought as she shook his hand, Loki in disguise?

Darcy glanced around the small, bare room and frowned at the single seat in front of the table. Two men in black suits sat behind it, an empty chair between them. Darcy frowned at the tablet laying on the table as Vilaro took his seat. She plopped into the chair and crossed her arms below her boobs. One of the nameless suits raised his eyebrows. She grinned at him. He sighed and leaned over to mutter something to the other suit.

Vilaro tapped the tablet. “Please bear with us and answer our questions to the best of your ability.” He turned on a recorder and placed it next to the tablet. “Question one. What is your full name?”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Darcy Joanna Lewis.” 

“Question Two: How did you become acquainted with Loki Odinson, alias Luke Oveson?”

”I dumped my coffee on him,” Darcy said with a grin that only stretched wider at the incredulous looks the three men gave her. “It was an accident.”

The questions only got more tedious as Vilaro read them from the tablet. If it hadn’t been so serious, and if Loki wasn’t depending on her, Darcy was so tempted to answer with pop culture references and nonsense. But if SHIELD was to bring him in and somehow un-brainwash him, they needed to know everything she could give them. (Except she wouldn’t give them everything. She couldn’t tell them about Asgard and wouldn’t say a word about the scraps of poetry Loki’d written her in Puente Antiguo or the confidences that he’d shared with her even if they hadn’t made much sense at the time. She would take those to her grave.) As the hours passed and lunch came and went, Darcy slouched in her seat. This was awful. And it scared her, given some of the questions, that SHIELD might not fully believe the brainwashing story. It also made her angry. She knew what kind of man he was; this was not Loki.

Darcy jumped as a siren echoed through the room. Agent Smith looked at her calmly. “It’s the conversion alarm,” she said. “Please remain seated.”

Darcy obeyed, noting the men securing all their notes and data. The entire place started to vibrate. Her eyes widened as she clenched the arms of the chair. Her fingers dug into the soft material.

“Never thought being on this boat would be like this,” Darcy said as everything rattled around them. No wonder the chair was bolted to the floor.

“Boat!?” One of the suits sounded outraged. “This is a ship.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Have you ever watched ‘Firefly’?”

“Are you always this flippant?”

She didn’t even have to think about that one. Random pop culture references kept her sane. There was stress enough in her life. She wanted to have fun while she could. And hey, if it annoyed people, that was their problem.

“Yeah, I tend to be,” she said with a slight shrug.

The three men stared at her. Vilaro shook his head, then began his questions where he’d left off. Darcy rolled her eyes. Ugh. How much longer did they expect this to take?

Someone knocked loudly just before the door slid open several hours later. Darcy looked over at Coulson, doing her best to ignore her rumbling stomach. Lunch had been so long ago. Coulson looked tired, but he did offer her a slight smile. Then he turned to the men questioning her.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Commander Vilaro,” Coulson said. “But I need Miss Lewis.”

Vilaro nodded. Darcy stood with a groan and rubbed her lower back. It hurt sitting down for that long. And she wasn’t even the one in trouble. She could only imagine what a real interrogation would feel like. Coulson sighed as they left the room, even sounding weary. She lowered her chin and looked at him.

He straightened the cuffs on his suit and the tiredness seemed to melt away. “You’re needed on the bridge,” Coulson said to her. “We found Loki.”

 

Darcy sat at the conference table as the bridge buzzed with activity (at least someone had brought her food, even if it was just a simple sandwich). Fury stood behind her as they watched the camera feed from the Quinjet. His presence made Darcy hunch her shoulders and clench her hands in her lap. It had nothing to do with the crowd kneeling before Loki just before Captain America (Captain freaking America!) threw his shield and knocked Loki over. Then Iron Man showed up and what was threatening to be an epic battle between the Forces of Good and Loki was abruptly finished. Loki raised his arms and vanished his armour. Darcy shivered slightly. The last time she’d seen anything like that was in New Mexico when he’d broken his cover to rescue Jane.

Behind her, Fury relaxed slightly and started issuing orders for some cell to be prepared and ready in an hour. It would take about that time for the jet to return. He walked away with Agent Hill. Agent Smith remained standing guard nearby.

Darcy stayed at the table, staring down at the embedded display now that the SHIELD jet was on its way in. One display box showed the trajectory of the jet and the other showed a simple circular cell made out of glass. Technicians swarmed it. Darcy shivered. That was where they’d be putting Loki. Exposed to everything.

The jet was halfway back to the helicarrier when Darcy straightened from her slump. Agent Hill had just said something about the weather and called Fury over to look at her displays. Lightning flashed outside the helicarrier, followed by a loud crack of thunder.

Not ten minutes later, the door opened and Thor strode inside. He looked straight at Fury. “I would have words with my brother when he arrives,” he said.

Commanded, really. Darcy stared at him. She’d never seen Thor so angry. She jumped as Fury frowned, expression blank. “Of course.”

Not really what she was expecting. But hey, alien prince. Did SHIELD really have any jurisdiction here? Loki technically had diplomatic immunity. But the scuttlebutt she’d overheard in the cafeteria ran along the lines of his attack declaring war against SHIELD. 

Thor narrowed his eyes. He considered Fury for a moment longer, then turned away. His bare arms stayed crossed. (Jane would probably appreciate that look. Unless she’d seen it before. Darcy sighed. It would be nice knowing that she was safe, regardless of what Coulson had said yesterday. You know, actual communication.)

Thor finally looked around, distracted from his grim musing, and nodded at the people now seated around the table. Then he grinned upon seeing Darcy and pulled her from her chair into a big hug. She smiled and hugged him back. He set her back down and the smile slipped from his face.

“I wish this could have happened another way,” he said softly as his hands squeezed her shoulders. “That our family would be reunited-”

Family? She rested her head against his armored chest for a brief moment. Did he really just say that? Because of the ring she wore, because of what Thor thought Loki meant by it? She took a few deep breaths and did her best not to freak, ignoring the people now coming in and sitting around the table.

”Sorry to interrupt,” Agent Hill said. “But you need to pay attention to this.” She pointed at the table before turning back to her bridge crew.

Darcy gladly squirmed out of Thor’s grip to sit back down and peer at the camera feed. Loki stood in the middle of a circular glass cell with his hands tucked behind his back, looking quite calmly at Fury and not at all concerned by what the director was saying.

“In case it’s unclear,” Fury said. “You try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass-” He pressed a button and a whirlwind whipped through the room as the floor underneath the cell opened. “-thirty thousand feet straight down in the middle of a steel trap.” The floor shut. “Ant.” Fury pointed at the floor. “Boot.”

The conversation continued as Darcy’s stomach turned. Everyone around her except Thor looked unconcerned, too focused on what Fury and Loki were saying to realize that Fury had just told Loki they’d gladly kill him. Darcy glanced at Thor, wanting one of his massive hugs again. Didn’t Fury realize that Loki wasn’t - that he was like all those brainwashed agents? She glanced back down at the screen. Or maybe he didn’t care. Then Fury walked out, the conversation over. The screen turned itself off.

“He really grows on you, doesn’t he?” Doctor Banner said more than asked. Darcy just glanced up and sighed. Captain America tapped the table.

“Loki’s going to drag this out,” he said. “So, Thor, Miss Lewis, what’s his play?”

Thor crossed his arms and looked out the bridge windows before responding. His voice was softer than normal. Darcy straightened. He sounded almost worried. Thor never sounded that way.

“He has an army called the Chitauri,” Thor said. “None in Asgard knew of them, but there were rumours in other realms. Father-” he shook his head and turned to those gathered around the table. “Loki means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.”

Captain America sounded almost disbelieving. “An army from outer space?”

“So he's building another portal,” Doctor Banner said. “That's what he needs Erik Selvig for.”

Darcy winced. She’d hoped to tell Thor that herself. Hoped to get permission from Coulson to talk to Thor in private. That obviously wasn’t going to happen now.

Thor turned to Darcy. “He took Erik?”

“Yeah,” she said. “But I don’t know why.”

Banner sighed. “He's an astrophysicist.”

Thor frowned. “He's a friend.”

Everyone at the table save for Agent Romanoff winced. She just raised an eyebrow and leaned forward on the table. Darcy fought the urge to slide back. The agent just breathed danger.

“Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours,” Romanoff said.

Thor nodded and turned back to the windows. Wispy clouds floated in front of the stars. Darcy sighed and stretched her legs out under the table. Forget her needing a hug, Thor definitely did.

Captain America (what was his real name? Something Rogers, Darcy recalled. Steve. If she hadn’t been involved with Loki, she would be kinda crushing on him. He was hot.) interrupted Thor’s contemplation. “I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here.”

Darcy glanced from Banner when he spoke up. “I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. To come up with this plan, well, you can smell the crazy on him.”

Darcy yelped. “He’s not-”

Thor’s voice rumbled over hers. “Take care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason at this moment, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother.”

At least Banner at the grace to look slightly ashamed of what he’d said. Darcy still glared at him, though. He shifted and refused to look at her.

“He killed eighty people in two days,” Agent Romanoff said into the brittle silence. “I know our intelligence points towards mind control, but we need to plan-”

Stark interrupted her as he walked into the room with Coulson following. “Look, I can fly you to Portland anytime.” He turned to the table. “Hey, Darcy. Aren’t you glad to have signed on with Stark Industries? I can guarantee we won’t kidnap you to provide intel on your alien boyfriend.”

Darcy wanted to disappear beneath the table as everyone turned to look at her. But the table was glass and wouldn’t hide her at all. Did Stark have to announce it in front of everyone? Okay, maybe not announce it. No one looked surprised. She wanted to groan. Of course SHIELD would have told these guys.

Rogers leaned forward. “How serious was this relationship?”

Now Darcy really wanted to turn invisible. What could she say without A) not degrading what she and Loki had, B) not insulting Thor (he’d called her family a few minutes ago and that was _scary_ ), and C) not lying. She pressed a hand to her face and pushed her glasses up.

“Very,” she said flatly as Fury walked in. “He’d come with me to Puente Antiguo before he-” her voice broke slightly. “Before he disappeared. And we thought-”

“We?”

Darcy jerked her head at Thor and kept her mouth shut. He could explain the rest. She wasn’t going to have her personal life dissected in front of her. She’d gotten enough of that in middle and high school. (So what if she sometimes liked girls, too? It wasn’t anyone’s business but her own.)

“What it comes down to is that Miss Lewis is our civilian expert on Loki,” Fury said, stopping the conversation cold. “And it’s partly thanks to her that we know Loki isn’t in full control of his actions.”

Partly? Darcy glared at him. So they’d brought her here to confirm something? Of course they did. This was SHIELD. And they needed whatever information she could provide that they didn’t already have.

“You mean he doesn’t normally want to take over a planet?”

Darcy rolled her eyes at Banner’s comment. Thor rumbled something about the Asgardian throne and the conversation evolved from there, slowly finding its way onto the Tesseract and power sources and iridium and portals. She yawned and rested her elbow on the table to prop her head up.

Banner and Stark wandered off, led by Agent Romanoff. Darcy jumped when Coulson touched her shoulder.

“Why don’t you get some rest?” he said.

Not a suggestion. Darcy nodded and stood with a yawn. Coulson remained standing next to her. She looked at him.

“Thor’s going to talk to Loki right now,” he said. “We’re arranging for a more in-depth interrogation in the morning. We need you to observe it.”

Darcy nodded and yawned again. Great. At least it wouldn’t be torture. They wouldn’t want her to watch that. Or even be aware of it. Plausible deniability, especially since she was close to Asgard’s ruling family, or two members of it. Only one that counted at the moment. She technically had no idea what Asgard’s policy on Loki was right now, aside from Thor wanting to bring him home.

Agent Smith peeled off from the section of the wall she’d claimed. They walked back to the cabin after brief showers. Darcy climbed into bed with her wet hair in pigtails, Loki’s strange blue eyes filling her thoughts before she fell asleep.

 

Darcy found Thor in the cafeteria in the morning. He sat alone at a table, morosely tapping a pop tart on his plate. Crumbs fell off the pastry. Darcy ignored all of SHIELD (especially Agent Smith) and wrapped an arm around his shoulders in an awful attempt at a hug. He looked up when she sat beside him and forced a smile.

“Good morning, Lady Darcy,” he said.

“Did you manage to sleep at all?” she asked.

Thor shrugged a shoulder. “What sleep I found was plagued by dreams.”

Darcy patted him on the arm. Thor set the pop tart down with a sigh. He turned to her and grabbed both her hands.

“Loki is not himself,” Thor said. “He said terrible things last night, that he was nothing but a shadow in my greatness and that we were not brothers. That Odin was not his father.” Thor gently rested his head on hers. “That he views himself as above everything on Midgard. That he means to rule you all.”

“I knew that from when SHIELD captured him last night,” Darcy said.

Thor moved away from her slightly. “He says he does not have the Tesseract nor know of its location.”

Darcy squeezed his hands. It wasn’t the Tesseract he was worrying himself to bits over.

“Thor, we’ll find a way to break this mind control,” she said with firm conviction. “We thought we’d never find him-”

And unmistakably, Thor flinched. Darcy released his hands and pulled back. Thor sighed again.

“I did not lie to you,” he rumbled, insulted by her implication. “When he fell, we all-” he composed himself. Darcy watched the anger fade from his eyes. “Three days before Loki first attacked Midgard, Heimdall saw a veil fall from a far-off segment of Yggdrasil, so far away on her branches that Asgard had no dealings with that realm nor knew of it. Yet my brother was there. And Heimdall watched as someone pressed a glowing spear to Loki’s chest and stole all his will away.”

The anger was back. Thor’s hands formed fists and he glared down at the table as if the pop tart had personally injured him. Darcy stayed still, barely noticing when Coulson slid into a seat across the table.

“Father’s spies discovered nothing,” Thor said. “We do not know what these Chitauri want from my brother save the Tesseract. And neither do we know how to free Loki from their influence. So I was sent here to bring him home, whether he is willing or not. We were unable to mount a rescue in such a brief time when he was first found.”

“Stark and Banner are tracking the Tesseract as we speak,” Coulson said, distracting them both. “As for now, we need you both at Loki’s cell.”

Thor nodded and stood. “Show us there.”

Darcy grabbed the abandoned pop tart off his plate and bit a corner off. She wanted breakfast, dammit. Then she stood and followed them out of the cafeteria, Smith her ever-present shadow.

Coulson straightened his tie absently. “We will meet with Commander Vilaro there,” he said.

Coulson started walking, taking a flight of stairs down to the next level. Darcy glanced around and found herself completely lost. Everything was shades of grey and the small numbers at corners meant nothing. It was like she was stuck in the Labyrinth with Coulson-Hoggle while Brainwashed!Loki-Jareth waited at the end holding Real!Loki hostage.

No, Darcy. Stop. This wasn’t some glitter-tastic 80s movie. This was Real Life with Real Problems. Adult Problems. And here she was The Girlfriend. Practically useless in every way and her taser did not count. She had nothing to offer SHIELD except her knowledge of Loki and Asgard. And even that was limited.

Her thoughts pulled her brain into a vortex of grey doom, only releasing her when Coulson touched her shoulder as they stopped in front of a blast door that looked like it had been imported from the Death Star. Romanoff stood in front of it with a blank face. She nodded at Coulson.

“We’re going in here,” Coulson said, leading Darcy and Thor over to a door set into the wall and opening it. Two agents looked over and then returned their attention to the one-way glass dominating the front wall. Agent Vilaro smiled.

Darcy scurried inside, sliding by Coulson and stopping in the middle of the narrow room. Thor stopped next to her. Loki paced in all his armored glory (sans helmet and cape) in the round glass cell. He looked pensive.

The door hissed shut after Coulson and Agent Smith. Coulson frowned out at Loki and looked down at the readings on the panels.

“Has he done anything?”

”No,” one of the agents said. “He took a leak several hours ago, but that’s about it. He just paces and smirks up at the camera every so often.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. Really? They were paying _that_ much attention to him? She eyed the cage through the window. Not that there was any kind of privacy to be had.

Loki paused in his pacing and suddenly turned around, amusement in his smirk. “There’s not many people who can sneak up on me.”

“But you figured I’d come,” Romanoff said. Her arms hung by her side. Darcy stepped over to the glass and narrowed her eyes. This was an interrogation?

“After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend,” he moved towards Romanoff with easy grace. “As a balm. And I would cooperate.”

Darcy clenched her jaw at the mocking condescension in his voice. She didn’t like this, not one bit. This rang too true for him. Loki had never had any patience for fools. Where did the brainwashing end and where did he begin?

“I want to know two things,” Romanoff said. “What you plan to do with Darcy Lewis. And what you’ve done to Agent Barton.”

“With Darcy?” He grinned. “Nothing I had not already planned before.”

What the hell? Planned before what: His torture? His mind control? His capture by the Chitauri? Darcy glanced at Vilaro. He was frowning and muttering something to Coulson. Thor sighed and rested a hand on Darcy’s shoulder. He squeezed it gently and remained silent, eyes on his brother.

“As for Barton,” Loki continued. “I would say I’ve expanded his mind.”

“And once you’ve won,” Romanoff said as she walked forward and crossed her arms. “Once you’re king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?”

“Is this love, Agent Romanoff?”

“Love is for children,” she said. “I owe him a debt.”

Loki walked to the padded bench and graced Romanoff with a smile. “Tell me.”

Darcy eye’s grew wide as Romanoff explained how she’d joined SHIELD. Holy crap. She’d led such a sheltered life. Sure, she’d heard of KGB horror stories, all about drug wars and rumours of the underbelly of the world. But this was what SHIELD did. It took the horrors and protected people with them by using said horrors. She shivered, and her respect for Romanoff grew. To turn her back on everything she knew and make something good of herself was awesome, and humbling.

She flinched as Loki started listing things Romanoff had done. Romanoff stilled, her eyes growing wide and scared. He started ranting, every word cutting deep into her. The agents surrounding Darcy rested their hands on their pistols. Thor gripped Mjolnir tight. Darcy just stared at the scene before her. How was Romanoff not running at such hatred? If that had been her out there, Darcy knew she’d be a shivering wreck on the floor. Even with her taser. Tasers could do nothing when it was words.

Still, her anger overrode everything that made her want to cower when he explained with vicious glee what he would do to both Barton and Romanoff at the end. Romanoff shuddered and turned away with hunched shoulders.

“You’re a monster,” she said softly, the beginning of tears clouding her voice.

Loki chuckled. “Oh, no,” he said with a grin. “You brought the monster.”

Romanoff straightened and turned. Her eyes were clear. Darcy’s jaw dropped as the agent spoke. “So, Banner.” Loki’s hand fell from the glass. “That’s your play.”

“What?”

Romanoff walked away, hand to her ear. “Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab. I’m on my way. I’ll bring Thor.” She paused and turned to face the cell and the incredulous Loki inside. She gave a small, polite smile. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

Thor turned to Coulson. “Why do you need me?”

”Your strength should be enough to control Banner if we need it,” Coulson said. He smiled at Romanoff as she entered the observation room. “Please go with Agent Romanoff.”

Thor nodded, but not before taking Darcy’s hand. “If my brother seeks to harm you, I will ensure he regrets his actions.”

She only nodded. After they left, Darcy turned back to Loki. Rage was fading into calculation. She shivered. He was plotting something.

“Miss Lewis,” Vilaro said. “Can you tell us anything about his motivations?”

Darcy took an empty seat at the console. “He’s always been arrogant, but he’s smart. Tony Stark smart.” She pushed her glasses up her nose and shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s . . . changed.”

“Sentiment?” Vilaro said. “Agent Romanoff did mention you first.”

“Just because we all think he loves me isn’t enough proof of anything,” Darcy said bitterly.

No one said anything to that. They couldn’t. No one knew.

They spent the next twenty minutes dissecting the interrogation word by word and action by action. Darcy slowly straightened as she watched the replays. Loki was trying to do the same to Romanoff what she’d done to him. Body language, word play . . . Thor had never quite come clean on what Loki’s responsibilities as the second prince were. Besides the whole spare-heir thing. And she knew he would never be satisfied with that sole responsibility. And in that damn letter he named himself Silvertongue and Lie-smith. Plus Thor had mentioned shape-shifting before. Darcy wanted to laugh as the realization hit her. Holy shit. He was a freaking spy.

Oh, yeah. She wasn’t telling SHIELD. Asgard would kill her. If she was right and even if she wasn’t.

She ignored her thoughts and the conversing agents and moved closer to the window. Loki’s eyes were still blue. He looked quite satisfied to be locked away now that the anger had vanished. When an explosion threw them all around the small monitoring room, Loki remained upright and his smirk widened into a chilling smile.

Darcy picked herself up and groaned against the whining of the alarm. Coulson was talking to someone over his earpiece and had one hand on his holster. Darcy remained still. She didn’t have her taser on her and it wouldn’t do much good against something that exploded. And the floor was tilting and that wasn’t a good sign.

“Yes, sir. I’ll get her out immediately.”

Darcy scrambled to her feet and pulled Agent Smith up. They limped over to the door and to Coulson. He frowned down at them and unholstered his pistol. Agent Smith drew her own. Darcy remained silent and between the two of them. She was a liability and was going to do exactly what they told her to. She wasn’t going to die just before she graduated college.

Coulson paused just before opening the door and put his hand to his ear. He frowned and turned around. “The Hulk is loose,” he said. “As this area is somewhat protected, for the moment we have to remain here. He is between us and our destination.”

Darcy’s eyes widened. The helicarrier was exploding, the Hulk was loose, and Loki looked positively gleeful about the entire thing. His manic grin had taken over his entire face.

“Darcy,” Coulson said. She turned around. He looked as serious as she had ever seen him. “Do not let Loki see you.”

She nodded, wishing more than ever for her taser. She looked at Loki and clenched her fists. SHIELD had played right into his hands by capturing him. And damn it, they knew it.

Footsteps rushed by outside the room, followed by the sound of the blast door opening. Agent Smith cursed. Two men in SHIELD gear were releasing Loki from his cage and one of them held the staff that the last Darcy knew had been handed over to Doctor Banner for study.

An idea pinged in Darcy’s mind. “Coulson, can we destroy that thing? Would that - would that help?”

Coulson looked at her. “I do not see how it would hurt, but my priority is to get you to a safer location-”

The window blew in. Coulson yanked Darcy to the floor and threw himself over her. Glass showered down on them. Darcy winced as a piece sliced across her bare arm. And Coulson was on top. He would be in much worse shape.

They both looked up as Loki stared in with that crazy grin on his face. At his back stood men in SHIELD gear - his soldiers, and all had their guns cocked at everyone in the observation room. Coulson remained crouched over Darcy. Darcy just breathed and noticed the moment Loki saw her. His grin flickered as his eyes widened, then it returned in full force.

He leapt into the small room before Agent Smith fired. A wave of blue sent her against the wall with a loud crack. Darcy flinched as another agent drew his pistol. Loki let the bullet rebound against a magic shield, turned without looking at the now-dead agent, and kicked Coulson off Darcy. She scrambled to her feet and grabbed Loki’s arm. They stared at each other for a moment. Then Darcy slammed her knee between his legs. Pain rocketed down her leg. Owow _ow_. Damn jerk was wearing a cup. Loki merely chuckled and shifted so he was gripping her arm instead of her holding him.

“Your bravery will not protect you,” Loki said. He remained standing still as his followers killed Commander Vilaro when he pulled his pistol on Loki. No one else made a move towards their weapons. Coulson picked himself off the floor and looked at Darcy. He gave her a small smile, but it didn’t work to calm her down. Darcy knew him, sort of. He was going to do something incredibly stupid.

Everything tipped sideways. Darcy yelped and grabbed hold of Loki’s arm again. He just smiled and stood still. His soldiers left the shattered window to stand guard around the glass cage.

“What’s going on?” Darcy asked.

“Your helicarrier falls from the sky,” Loki said. He smirked around the room, looking at Smith’s still form crumpled at the base of the wall and the two dead agents that had dared draw weapons on him. Darcy just sighed. Of course Loki would try to destroy a flying aircraft carrier when it was actually flying. And him in it. But he could teleport and he would never be caught in a trap of his own making.

He dragged her out of the observation room through the door and into the main cell. A double appeared in the glass cage. Loki stood off to the side. He let her arm go. Darcy rubbed it. His grip had hurt.

Then Thor charged into the room as the cell door opened, letting the Loki copy out. And before Darcy could scream a warning, Thor ran right through the double and into the cell. The door slammed shut and Loki stepped out from the shadows with a grin as the double faded. Thor stared at Loki.

“Are you always going to fall for that?”

Someone crashed to the floor, startling everyone. Loki spun. Coulson just smiled and took a step away from the door and the fallen guard at it. Darcy remained where Loki’d put her. She blinked as Thor shouted something. Blood still trickled from a cut under Coulson’s hairline, compliments of the broken window. Darcy pressed her back into the cool metal of the wall. Loki glared at Coulson.

Coulson met his satisfied gaze with calm certainty. Then he moved. He left the chair back on the floor and went for Loki. Loki dodged Coulson’s kick, but he didn’t move fast enough to duck the fist aimed at his face. Loki hissed and disappeared. Darcy had just enough time to open her mouth when Loki reappeared behind Coulson and stabbed the blades of the scepter through his body.

Darcy ran the few feet, sliding past Loki, and helping Coulson to rest against the wall. Blood smeared over the grey metal. Coulson did his best to smile up at her. Darcy returned it and glanced over her shoulder to glare at Loki.

“He was only trying to rescue me,” she said.

Loki shrugged. He calmly waved his hand over the blades as he walked back to the control panel, magic instantly cleaning the blood off. He pressed the button to open the floor. Darcy felt a surge of hatred for Fury for showing him that and screamed again as the cell fell, released from its tethers, Thor still trapped inside.

Coulson squeezed her hand, yanking her attention back down to him. Blood covered his shirt. She fought the urge to hurl.

“It’ll be all right,” he said. He raised his voice and Loki turned. “You’re going to lose.”

Loki stalked over and yanked Darcy up. She scrambled in his grasp, desperate to get back to Coulson and somehow staunch the bleeding. She knew first aid. She could do something to help. But Coulson continued talking as if nothing was wrong.

“It’s in your nature,” he said.

“Your heroes are scattered,” Loki said with a smile. “I have a hostage and your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?”

“You lack conviction.”

Loki laughed and dragged Darcy away and out of the room. She kicked at him, tried to twist her head to bite his hand, but Loki only pulled her in close.

“The more you resist,” he hissed. “The more inclined I am to slit his throat and make you watch as his life drains away.”

Darcy turned back to watch an injured agent crawl out of the observation room and make his way into the empty cell bay. Loki didn’t notice or didn’t care. But Darcy stopped fighting. Tears fell down her face. Coulson had been stabbed with a spear through his chest. She didn’t know how long he would survive and he’d done it trying to protect her and Thor.

She didn’t say a word as Loki dragged her through the bowels of the ship, onto the helicarrier’s flight deck, and into a waiting quinjet. (Where the hell had they gotten one? Raided a SHIELD base? She had heard a rumour at breakfast yesterday that they’d lost contact with three. Damnity damn damn. And why the hell hadn’t anyone tried to stop them from leaving?) She buckled herself in as the jet lifted off.

Loki glanced around, ignoring her for the moment. “Where’s Barton?”

One of the three men on board answered. “Captured.”

Loki sighed and slumped against his chair, seemingly lost in thought. Darcy did nothing to attract anyone’s attention. Silence reigned for the rest of the flight.


	3. New York City

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Independence1776 for the beta.
> 
> Any recognizable dialogue comes from the movie.

Somehow it didn’t surprise Darcy that the jet dropped them off at Stark Tower. Loki didn’t even let her appreciate the awesome view, just dragged her inside and shoved her at the red couch. She took the hint and sat. The three Bad Guys in SHIELD gear descended in the elevator to somewhere. Probably guarding the entrance. Darcy sighed and craned her neck to stare out the windows. New York shone in the bright sunlight.

Then the internal lights flickered and went out. It didn’t dim the penthouse too much; sunlight poured in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Loki looked at her and stalked up a set of stairs hidden behind a gorgeous wooden panel next to the elevator. Right. Emergency stairs. Darcy remained right where she was. She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that Loki would not do nice things to her if she moved.

Darcy really, really wanted her taser.

Loki eventually came back down the stairs with a wide smile. Darcy stiffened as he walked over and looked down. He towered over her. She swallowed and moved to stand. His hand on her shoulder prevented her from rising.

“Your precious Earth will fall,” he said. “I will have victory and my rule will be assured.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Have you forgotten everything I taught you about representative governments?”

”Your petty politics do not concern me,” Loki said.

“That’s what George the Third thought,” Darcy snapped.

His hand moved to the back of her head. Loki pulled her hair tight, yanking her head back. That _hurt_. But his expression was all malice and the levity Darcy’d been striving for ran away and hid cowering behind what looked like an impressive wet bar.

“You dare compare me to a failed mortal ruler?” Loki asked, malice filling every word. “I will not lose this war - and when my victory is assured, you humans will be kneeling before me and I will grant you all peace.”

Darcy snorted. “And where do I fall into all this? I’m just another pawn in your game against SHIELD.”

Loki released her hair and ran his fingers along her jaw line. She resisted the urge to shrink from his gentle touch. He smiled.

“Oh, you are more than that,” Loki said. “Every king needs a consort.”

Snark was a bad idea. Snark was a very bad idea. But Darcy just told her cowering common sense to shut up. Her fear-fueled anger overrode any lifesaving instincts she had.

“You want me on my knees before you?” she asked. Loki’s smile widened. “So do you want the blow job now or later?”

Loki blinked and laughed. In one smooth motion, he stepped away from her. “You are amusing.” He glanced outside. “We will finish this . . . conversation later.”

Darcy struggled to calm her breathing as Loki walked outside onto the curved balcony. He gazed into the distance. Anticipating what, exactly?

And oh boy was she in trouble. Darcy glanced over at the enormous wet bar (hello, Stark, nice to meet you, do you really need a bar that big?) and relaxed into the sofa.

“Miss Lewis, are you all right?”

Darcy jumped to her feet and put a hand to her chest. “Jeez. Don’t _do_ that.”

“My apologies,” the British-accented voice said. “I did not mean to alarm you.”

“Nope, no alarm,” Darcy glanced back at Loki. He seemed intent on surveying the world he wanted to conquer. “Just totally not trying to have a panic attack right now.”

“I understand,” JARVIS said. “I would advise you to use the emergency stairs to escape as I have shut down the arc reactor, but I do not think that is the wisest course of action at present.”

She was just about to ask why when a streak of light burned its way through the sky, resolving into a red armour suit. Darcy hurriedly sat down on the couch and placed her hands in her lap. Loki came inside as Stark landed and the armour was taken off him. Darcy remained very, very still as Stark glanced at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity,” Loki said.

Stark didn’t even pause. “Uh, actually, I was going to threaten you. After I made sure that you didn’t hurt Darcy. He didn’t, right?” Darcy shook her head, eyes wide. “Good. Back to the threatening.”

Loki sounded amused. “You should have left your armour on for that.”

“Yeah, well, it's seen a bit of mileage,” Stark said as he strolled behind the wet bar and grabbed a tumbler. He poured a scotch and offered it to Darcy. She mouthed a ‘no’. Stark just shrugged and continued talking to Loki. “Would you like a drink?”

“Stalling me will not change anything.”

”No, no, no. Threatening,” Stark said and took a sip from the tumbler. “No drink? You sure? I’m having one.”

“The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that,” Loki said as he paced around the room, constantly glancing outside. He turned back to Stark. “What have I to fear?”

“The Avengers,” Stark said as he put the stopper back in the bottle. Loki looked bemused. Stark rolled his eyes. “It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type of thing.”

Loki smirked. “Yes, I've met them.”

Stark snorted. “Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demigod-”Loki huffed and shifted the scepter he still held. He turned away towards the window. “- a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend.”

Stark was fiddling with something behind the counter and Darcy kept her eyes completely away from him, not noticing anything, no clue what’s going on, nope. Stark just kept talking. “A man with breathtaking anger management issues-” Loki turned around with a slight chuckle and a grin. Darcy’s mouth dropped open. Oh, putting these two in a room together (well, when Loki wasn’t brainwashed and evil) would be a very bad idea. They’d get along like a house on fire. 

“A couple of master assassins, and you, big fella,” Stark pointed right at Loki, some kind of bracelets adorning his wrists that Darcy _knew_ he hadn’t been wearing when he’d arrived. “You've managed to piss off every single one of them.”

Loki sounded smug. “That was the plan.”

“Not a great plan,” Stark said. The levity faded from his voice as he came out from behind the bar holding his drink. “When they come, and they will, they'll come for you.”

Loki stopped pacing and stared him down. “I have an army.”

Stark continued walking towards Loki, climbing down a small set of stairs. “We have a Hulk.”

Darcy started moving away from them. She eased off the sofa and sat on the carpeted floor. If anything happened, and with Stark and Loki involved, she knew it would, she wanted to give herself some cover. Whatever cover a fancy sofa and a sunken floor allowed, anyway.

“I thought the beast had wandered off,” Loki said, gesturing idly with the staff.

Stark sighed. “You're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top.”

It was just him and Loki now and Darcy was quite happy to be forgotten. Stark had absolutely none of the playfulness he’d shown walking in. This, Darcy knew, was the man he really was behind all the masks he wore. It kinda impressed her.

“Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you,” Stark said as he set the tumbler down. “Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it.”

Loki stepped forward, closing the distance between the two of them. Darcy meeped quietly as Loki raised the staff.

“How will your friends have time for me,” Loki asked, “when they’ll be so busy fighting you?”

He touched the staff to Stark’s chest. Darcy’s jaw dropped as the blue light swirled and faded. He tried it again, the tip of the staff clinking on something under Stark’s shirt.

Loki looked puzzled. “That usually works.”

Stark shrugged. “Well, performance issues, you know. One in every four men-”

Loki grabbed him by the throat and flung him across the floor. Darcy peeked her head up over the couch to watch.

“JARVIS,” Stark called. “Any time now.”

Loki picked him up by the throat again. “You will all fall before me.” He marched over to the window, Stark struggling in vain. Loki tossed him through the window. Darcy screamed. Loki turned with a murderous expression and moved towards her. Something hurtled out of the beautiful wooden panels, knocking Loki over. He climbed to his feet as Iron Man appeared in the shattered window frame.

“And there’s one other person you pissed off,” Iron Man said. “His name was Phil.”

Darcy ducked again, doing her best to ignored his reference to Coulson ( _was_?), and cowered between the table and the sofa. Iron Man hit Loki with a repulser blast, Loki retaliated with the scepter, and then they were both gone out the window. Darcy climbed to her feet and brushed at her pants. There was nothing there but she needed to do something with her hands and she wasn’t idiotic enough to try to pick glass shards up. She looked around at the damage. And this place was so nice.

The alien ships started swarming from the sky and Darcy sank right back down into her little hiding spot. She didn’t move from it, not even when Loki knocked the quinjet from the sky or Thor flew down and battled with Loki on the balcony. Loki tumbled from the balcony at the end of it and Thor just flew away with a hurt expression. Darcy breathed out.

And to her everlasting nonsurprise, started to cry. Dammit, she hated when she did this. Stress ate at her in the worst ways and that was her boyfriend that had just gotten into two fights, hit by Stark’s repulsors, and jumped off a building onto a waiting vehicle. Tears streaked down her face. She buried her face in her arms and let herself sob everything out.

“Hey, JARVIS?” she asked after her fit passed.

“Yes, Miss Darcy?”

”Can you patch me in to the Avengers’ frequency?” Darcy paused for a moment to wipe at her face.

“Of course,” JARVIS said and immediately did so.

She didn’t know how long she sat there listening to the Avengers chatter amongst themselves about squadrons and Banner arriving and parties, but there were giant shapes streaming from the sky like armored whales. And skiffs with creatures. They flashed by the tower, the entry point far above. Darcy swallowed and shifted to a more comfortable position so her knees wouldn’t kill her at the end of all the crouching she was doing.

Something blurry slammed through the remaining panes of glass, shattering the windows into pieces. Darcy ducked behind the table with her hands over her head. Glass littered her and she was bleeding from at least a dozen scratches. The blur resolved itself into a giant green monster and Loki flinging himself off the floor to stand defiant and glaring. Darcy ducked again and then peaked her head up. Did she have any self-preservation instincts at all? And oh, so _that_ was the Hulk. She never thought she’d see him in anything but pictures.

Loki looked beyond furious. “Enough!” he screamed. The Hulk stopped moving around and looked at him. Loki’s eyes were wild. “You are all _beneath_ me. I am a god, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by-”

The Hulk reached forward and grabbed Loki by the legs. He slammed him into the floor three times and left Loki lying in a crater. The scepter was nowhere in sight.

“Puny god,” the Hulk rumbled before leaping out the broken windows.

Darcy blinked. Uh, he wasn’t a god and he knew it. Loki really wasn’t in his right mind. Then she heard a high-pitched whine coming from the crater in the floor. Darcy half-rose, then stopped, almost falling over. He was probably injured, yeah, but he was still mind-controlled. But she didn’t care.

Darcy scrambled to Loki, heedless of the broken glass and the shards of the marble floor scattered everywhere. Loki whimpered and moved his eyes to her when she knelt down.

His green eyes.

Loki moved one hand and gently grasped one of hers as she tried to touch his face. “I’m fine,” he wheezed.

“You’re bleeding,” Darcy said.

“I’ll heal.”

They sat like that and listened the communications chatter from the Avengers. Agent Romanoff rushed in from the emergency stairs at one point and stopped to stare at them. She came over with a pistol ready in her hands and a dark stare, looking deep into Darcy and Loki’s eyes. The hard line of Romanoff’s shoulders relaxed for a brief instant. Then it reappeared as she ran outside and came running back in carrying the scepter. She beelined for the stairs and climbed back up them.

Then Darcy’s hand tightened on Loki’s as Stark broke in over the comms, saying something about a missile headed for the city. Then there was Stark and the missile was successfully diverted and Romanoff closed the portal. The indoor lights flickered back on. Then all the Avengers crowded into the room just as she was helping Loki sit up (he ignored her protests about staying still) to make their way behind the wet bar where there was a lot less debris.

Loki smiled up at the six of them and particularly at Stark. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll have that drink now.”

Thor laughed. “Brother, you have been restored to us!”

Darcy just poked Loki in what she hoped was a non-painful spot on his shoulder. “No drinks for the injured guy.”

Loki scowled. “I’m fine.”

“No,” Banner said after he shifted back. “You probably have a concussion and internal injuries.” He smiled wryly. “I know how hard the Other Guy hits.”

Everyone glanced between Banner and Loki. Thor moved forward. He knelt down and gently placed his hand on the shoulder Darcy had been poking.

“You need medical attention, brother,” Thor said.

Loki winced and slid one arm over his ribs. Darcy frowned. Loki quirked a smile, but made no further protests. Stark got out of his armour and disappeared after saying something about hunting clothes up for Banner. Darcy and Thor politely refused to join the Avengers in their celebratory meal after Stark returned. Romanoff had already called for a team of medics. Thor thanked her. Darcy held Loki’s hand as the Avengers left in the elevator.

Not ten minutes later, a group of SHIELD soldiers poured in from the emergency stairs. They took one look at Loki’s eyes, nodded, and lowered their weapons. Five minutes after that, the elevator opened on a team of medics. The medics glanced around and hurried to Loki’s side. Thor gently pulled Darcy away to let them work. Loki muttered under his breath as the medics carefully strapped him onto a gurney, but didn’t fight them. Darcy and Thor accompanied them downstairs. Thor smiled at Darcy when she shook her head as Loki was loaded into an ambulance. He was Loki’s brother; he should be the one riding in it. The doors slammed shut and the ambulance drove away. Darcy sighed and went with the soldiers. The invasion had been stopped, Loki was himself again, and this day was finally over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just the epilogue to go.


	4. Departure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'd by Independence1776.

No one seemed to notice them, even though Thor was in full armour. Darcy thought that would have been a big sign: _Here are the Avengers! Come mob us at your pleasure_. Then she saw, just briefly, a suited man directing a couple with a baby carriage down a different path. Of course this place would be surrounded by SHIELD agents.

Darcy hung back as Thor made the rounds, saying his farewells to all his allies. Loki squeezed her right hand and ran his thumb over the ring. Darcy glanced at him. He’d been doing that a lot since his release from medical that morning. He looked so tired.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

Loki sighed. “I admit, I have felt better.”

That was kind of an understatement, Darcy thought. Even being kept in medical to monitor his numerous injuries didn’t prevent SHIELD from interrogating him (the bastards). Something about broken ribs and a concussion and severe malnutrition and more injuries she had not gotten a description of. Not that she was supposed to actually know anything anyway. But Thor was, for the moment, his primary caregiver. At least SHIELD’s doctors followed patient privacy laws, especially considering their patient was an alien prince with godlike powers and diplomatic immunity. Thor informed the Avengers of his injuries; they promptly sent Loki a bunch of flowers (Stark’s idea). So she just squeezed his hand.

Erik hauled out the container containing the Tesseract, then the case holding the scepter. Thor slung that over his back. It looked odd against the cape. Darcy felt Loki relax just the tiniest bit, knowing that he wouldn’t be the one to carry it. Thor picked up the Tesseract’s container and nodded at his brother. Loki squeezed Darcy’s hand and tried to step away.

Darcy was not going to have any of it. She didn’t care who was watching or what they thought. She moved in front of Loki and stood on tiptoe to brush his lips in a brief kiss.

“Don’t forget about me, okay?”

Loki, finally, let a smile stretch across his face. He nodded and raised her hand to his lips. There was so much warmth in his eyes.

Darcy stepped out of his way and watched as Loki grabbed the other handle on the container. Thor activated the Tesseract to take them back to Asgard. They disappeared in a flash of blue light.

The Avengers separated. Erik climbed back into the SHIELD van with scarcely a smile in Darcy’s direction. Steve rode off on a vintage motorcycle. Stark and Banner climbed into a fancy sports car and zoomed away.

“Ready to go?”

Darcy nodded at Clint’s question. He and Natasha were driving her home. She thought of the graduation ceremony she’d missed, the paperwork she knew she’d have to fill out (hello, real life), and most of all, her family.

“Yeah,” she said. “I am.”


End file.
